Five New Blueberry Species Found in the Colombian Forests
Posted on May 23, 2015
Scientists have discovered five new species of blueberry in the forests of Colombia. The plants, locally known as mortinos, all belong to the plant family Ericaceae. They are in addition to the hundreds of blueberry relatives native to Colombia.
Researcher Paola Pedraza-Peñalosa, from The New York Botanical Garden, discovered several new non-tree species that are related to the North American blueberry. The newly described Psammisia sophiae species is pictured above and another new species, Satyria orquidiensis, is pictured above.
Some of these new species are restricted to the Colombian Western Cordillera and Choco biogeographic region. Most of the new species are found within protect areas, such as the Las Orquídeas National Park, however, there is concern for some of them because the Colombia Andes and Choco have high rates of deforestation and transformation, sometimes even in the protected areas. The the Tropical Andes and Choco biodiversity hotspots have the highest angiosperm diversity in northern South America.
A research paper on the new blueberry species is published here in the journal PhytoKeys. The article contains more photographs of the new blueberry relatives.